9 Essential Elements of a High-Converting Thank You Page (+ Examples)

There’s a page on your site that’s a goldmine waiting to be tapped. It’s not your About page; nor is it your checkout page…

…it’s your thank you page.

Get this page right and it becomes an invisible selling machine for your business. Get it wrong, and you risk getting your relationship with new subscribers off to a rocky start.

The truth is, despite their best intentions, many business owners massively underutilize their thank you page.

They don’t ask their potential buyer to take action—when they’re primed to do so—and, thus, forgo countless opportunities to encourage engagement, increase their revenue and more.

Worse, most aren’t even aware of they’re doing it.

Well, that changes right now.

In this article, I’m going to show you the psychology behind why a creative thank you page converts so well (hint: it’s not what you think) and more important, how to get more mileage out of your thank you page copy by using nine of the very best practices available today.

Let’s get started.

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Need a Little Inspiration?

Uncovering inspiration for high-converting thank you pages is a time-consuming activity (I should know—this post took 12+ hours to research).

To save you time, I’ve included a swipe file with 15 of my favorite thank you pages so you can begin optimizing your thank you page right away (#3 is my favorite).

Before we look at each strategy, let’s discuss why thank you pages convert well, to begin with.
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The Power Of Little Commitments (Or Why Thank You Pages Work)

As you’re probably already aware, a thank you page is a page visitors are redirected to after opting in for an incentive on a website (or in other cases, such as e-commerce, making a purchase).

Often, its purpose is to provide visitors with a link to the lead magnet they opted in for and to, well, thank them for opting in.

While there’s nothing inherently wrong with a page like the above, it ignores an important principle in consumer psychology:

People tend to behave in ways that are consistent with an earlier action.

In other words, when someone complies with a little request—like opting in for a newsletter—they’re more likely to comply with a similar or larger request later (like making a purchase).

This is known as commitment and consistency and it’s one of the most powerful persuasion triggers in marketing.

For example, in one study led by Jonathan Freedman and Scott Fraser, a researcher posing as a volunteer worker asked a selection of California homeowners to accept and display a little three-inch-square sign that read, “Be a safe driver.”

A simple request, right? The homeowners thought so, too: nearly all of them agreed to it.

But here’s where it gets interesting…

Two weeks later, a different volunteer worker followed up with the homeowners and asked them to allow an obstructive public-service billboard with poor lettering to be allowed on their front lawns.

If I can get you to make a commitment, I will have set for your automatic and ill-considered consistency with that earlier commitment. Once a stand is taken, there is a natural tendency to behave in ways that are stubbornly consistent with the stand.

SnackNation, a healthy office snack delivery service, are a perfect illustration of building commitment and consistency into their marketing.

When you opt in for one of their content upgrades, you’re redirected to this thank you page:

On it, you’re given an opportunity to claim a free Snack Box in exchange for a brief call with a sales rep to see if SnackNation is a good fit for your office.

With over 700,000 monthly readers and more than 350,000 email subscribers, James’s blog has gone from a blank WordPress installation to one of the most popular single-author blogs in the world in less than three years.

One of the ways he’s been able to achieve that growth?

Asking for referrals on his thank you page.

After joining his weekly newsletter, you’re redirected to a page where James asks you to refer his work to a friend:

Furthermore, he makes it supersimple to do by including a pre-written email:

All you have to do is click the link and press “Send” and James increases his likelihood of acquiring a new reader (and one day, a customer).

Takeaway: Ask new readers to refer you to a friend using a pre-written email.

2. Ask for Social Shares

The requests you ask of your audience will depend on things such as demographics and psychographics.

(Teenagers, for example, are more likely to share something on social media than send an email referring a service like we saw in the previous example.)

Put another way, if you know most of your reader’s time is spent on Facebook, then asking them to ‘Like’ your page will be easier than requesting a referral.

Let’s imagine for a moment your goal isn’t to grow a following on social media but to push more targeted traffic through your marketing funnel.

How could you encourage more social shares?

One option is to leverage your readers’ following to your advantage.

Some influencers, like Brennan Dunn from Double Your Freelancing, ask new email signups to share his popular email course:

Others, like Michael Hyatt, incentivise the share by offering a chance to win a prize:

Takeaway: Ask new readers to share an important page on their favorite social media channel (pro tip: give a reason why you’re asking for the share.)

3. Demonstrate Authority

Earlier, we talked about the power of commitment and consistency: our tendency to be consistent with actions we’ve already taken.

But there’s another best practice that amplifies this principle further:

The principle of authority.

It’s no surprise, then, many businesses choose to position themselves as the go-to leader in their marketplace: when you’re a recognized expert in your field, you don’t need to prospect for new business; customers come to you.

But it’s important to remember authority isn’t demonstrated by what you say about yourself or your company. Rather, it’s what other authorities say about you.

When you opt in, you’re given a choice what to do next based in where you are on the buyer’s journey. If you’re only at the beginning of the cycle and want to learn more about your problem, you can read a free resource on the subject:

But if you’re further along in the buyer’s journey and are considering making a purchase, they offer a free assessment to sell one of their training courses:

Give people a choice and often, they’ll know which path is right for them.

Takeaway: Nudge subscribers along the buyer’s journey by offering different types of content (e.g. a webinar, free trial, etc.).

6. Link to Your Most Popular Content

Let’s stop for a moment and consider an important truth:

If a reader opts in on your site, it’s because either they got value from your content (i.e. it solved a problem for them), and/or, they believe you will continue to deliver value in the future.

With that in mind, it’s important you’re consistent with that expectation and assist your prospective buyers on their journey as best you can.

Pat Flynn, from Smart Passive Income, might understand his audience better than anyone. After opting in for his newsletter, Pat offers a series of eBooks solving a variety of popular pain points his audience has:

Groove, on the other hand, link to their most popular content based on social shares and comments:

Linking to their most popular content, not only benefits the reader; it benefits the blog, too.

Digital Marketer offer self-liquidating offers on many of their thank you pages to not only recoup their investment (if you came through a paid channel) but also to convert new subscribers into customers:

Granted, you won’t convert everyone (not yet, anyway), but you will break-even on some of your new acquisitions.

Takeaway. Offer a self-liquidating thank you offer on your confirmation page if you’re paying for traffic.

8. Encourage Engagement

We all have a need to connect.

We want to meet with like-minded people and most importantly, feel like we belong…

And there’s no better way than joining an online community.

The problem, though, is rarely, if ever, do you get a chance to interact with the tens of or hundreds of thousands of other readers a blog prides itself on.

That is unless you get an immediate introduction when you sign up.

When you join Derek Halpern’s community at Social Triggers, you’re asked to “Like” his Facebook page and introduce yourself (notice the social proof to coax you further):

From there, Derek asks his readers questions on his Facebook page, further nurturing his relationship with his community:

Do this consistently, and you build a thriving community of loyal readers and customers.

Takeaways. Include a Facebook or Disqus comment box on your thank you page and ask a question to encourage engagement.

9. Conduct a Survey

Surveying your audience gives you greater insight into what makes your audience tick (their goals, desires, pain points, etc.) and helps you craft a highly-targeted marketing message which is both interesting and relevant to your audience.

The problem is, many businesses do it wrong.

They don’t ask the right questions and when they do, they ask them via an overpopulated medium (e.g. email).

What really savvy business owners do, instead, is ask you immediately after you’ve expressed interest in their company.

After all, if you just joined a company’s newsletter, you probably have a particular problem top of mind.

Skyrocket Your Conversions with Thank You Pages

Above, I’ve outlined nine of the very best thank you page practices, but you need to be selective.

Don’t overwhelm your new subscriber with requests to refer a friend, follow you on Twitter, complete a survey, etc. Instead, focus on one best practice, test it, and iterate as needed.

How do you use your thank you page? Leave a comment below.

Sam Thomas Davies

Sam is the Content Marketing Manager at Sleeknote. His specialties include copywriting, direct response marketing and SEO. When he’s not helping ecommerce businesses engage their site visitors, you can find him playing guitar, reading, and writing generic author profile bios.

Thanks, Aden. It’s great to have you reading. I love asking for referrals. It’s proven, reliable, and can be implemented quickly and easily (tracking where referrals come from, though, is another story). Let me know how you get on 🙂

These are fantastic ideas, however I feel that businesses should select a choice based on their marketing goal for that period or time. For example a new startup with focus on reach and exposure to content can do well to offer the click to tweet option or read a blog post. But a business that wants to grow clientele base and knows that they’ve built enough trust out there can use the referrals. Businesses that want to know more about their readers and users can use the survey. One size doesn’t fit all. And the good thing is businesses can change what’s on the thank you page. Surprisingly you didn’t add video. Like a welcome video. I see video as one way to build that know, like and trust quickly especially with new subscribers. Watching a business owner share their why in a 1-2 minute video can do wonders. These are just my thoughts. Thanks for the article.

Hi Ifeoma, I agree: welcome videos are powerful. I was going to include it in the post but decided to cut it (wanted to keep the numbers odd and the post was getting too long.) Thanks for the feedback, though; I really appreciate it 🙂